John J. Gredler Works of Art

Signed Bronze Bust of Moses on a Sienna Marble Base, After Michelangelo

Grand Tour bronze bust of Moses after the marble original by Michelangelo. Mounted on a Sienna marble socle base. Signed Otto Muller. Karsruhle. Germany circa 1890. Beautifully cast bronze showing the intense gaze and flowing beard and hair of the Prophet.

Moses (c. 1513–1515) is a sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance artist Michelangelo, housed in the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. Commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II for his tomb, it depicts the biblical figure Moses with horns on his head, based on a description in chapter 34 of Exodus in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible used at that time.

Giorgio Vasari in the "Life of Michelangelo" wrote: "Michelangelo finished the Moses in marble, a statue of five braccia, unequaled by any modern or ancient work. Seated in a serious attitude, he rests with one arm on the tablets, and with the other holds his long glossy beard, the hairs, so difficult to render in sculpture, being so soft and downy that it seems as if the iron chisel must have become a brush. The beautiful face, like that of a saint and mighty prince, seems as one regards it to need the veil to cover it, so splendid and shining does it appear, and so well has the artist presented in the marble the divinity with which God had endowed that holy countenance."

Some wear to the patina, minor chips to the base.

9.5" h  x  4.5" w  x  3.5" d